My three days in Kazakhstan flew by, and I unfortunately didn’t get to experience a ton of the local environment given that I spent the majority of my time on work obligations at the hotel. That said, I did get to spend a little time downtown Almaty and am able to make a couple of observations.
First, the city definitely had a former Soviet – or at least former communist – feel to it. There were tons of bland government buildings and wide avenues, and the city itself was very spread out. Second, there was a ton of traffic. Every street seemed to be a parking lot of cars moving at a snail’s pace (and this is an observation from someone who grew up in Los Angeles…). But the streetlights had timers on them, so you always knew when the light was going to change (I really liked this for some reason…).
The most interesting part of my visit was speaking with many of the locals who I had met through work. It was particularly interesting hearing about their experiences in Kazakhstan during the 1980s, prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. I asked a ton of questions and the following are some of the most interesting things that I heard in response:
- Many ethnic Russians who live in Kazakhstan (roughly 23% of the population) more closely identify with their former country (particularly those who were born before the Kazkahstan’s independence), but are caught in sort of a no man’s land given that they’re not viewed as truly Russian in Russia (where many still have family and friends) but don’t feel truly Kazakh either.
- Almost everyone that I spoke with had a deep fear of the U.S. during the Cold War and was convinced that the U.S. was going to attack them.
- A girl that I met was one of the first Russian foreign exchange students allowed to attend school in the U.S. during the Cold War. Overall she had very fond memories of her time in Madison, Wisconsin and found all the people that she met there very nice.
- Even though communism fell nearly 20 years ago, most people felt that the country is still trying to figure things out with respect to capitalism. There are still a lot of inefficiencies (particularly within the government) and the capitalist mentality hasn’t universally set in.
- There was also a common view among the ethnic Russians that while outsiders typically think of Moscow and St. Petersberg as representative of Russia as a country, those two cities are really small islands within Russia that don’t represent the broader populace well at all.
Before I get on my plane to Istanbul, I have three more quick observations. First, lines are not very well respected in Kazakhstan (or at least within the airport). It basically felt like every man, woman and child for him/herself. This is a bit hard to adapt to when you’re used to some general level of respectfulness.
Second, there are absolutely no McDonalds in Kazakhstan – at least that’s what I was told and I definitely didn’t see any. Someone said it had to do with a meat quality issue, which I don’t buy at all given that the steaks that I had at the hotel were phenomenal. In my opinion, if the “no McDonalds” claim is true, then Kazakhstan is much better off as a result.
Third, my flight leaves at 3:30am. There is nothing fun about arriving at the airport at 2am for a 3:30am flight…
First, the city definitely had a former Soviet – or at least former communist – feel to it. There were tons of bland government buildings and wide avenues, and the city itself was very spread out. Second, there was a ton of traffic. Every street seemed to be a parking lot of cars moving at a snail’s pace (and this is an observation from someone who grew up in Los Angeles…). But the streetlights had timers on them, so you always knew when the light was going to change (I really liked this for some reason…).
The most interesting part of my visit was speaking with many of the locals who I had met through work. It was particularly interesting hearing about their experiences in Kazakhstan during the 1980s, prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. I asked a ton of questions and the following are some of the most interesting things that I heard in response:
- Many ethnic Russians who live in Kazakhstan (roughly 23% of the population) more closely identify with their former country (particularly those who were born before the Kazkahstan’s independence), but are caught in sort of a no man’s land given that they’re not viewed as truly Russian in Russia (where many still have family and friends) but don’t feel truly Kazakh either.
- Almost everyone that I spoke with had a deep fear of the U.S. during the Cold War and was convinced that the U.S. was going to attack them.
- A girl that I met was one of the first Russian foreign exchange students allowed to attend school in the U.S. during the Cold War. Overall she had very fond memories of her time in Madison, Wisconsin and found all the people that she met there very nice.
- Even though communism fell nearly 20 years ago, most people felt that the country is still trying to figure things out with respect to capitalism. There are still a lot of inefficiencies (particularly within the government) and the capitalist mentality hasn’t universally set in.
- There was also a common view among the ethnic Russians that while outsiders typically think of Moscow and St. Petersberg as representative of Russia as a country, those two cities are really small islands within Russia that don’t represent the broader populace well at all.
Before I get on my plane to Istanbul, I have three more quick observations. First, lines are not very well respected in Kazakhstan (or at least within the airport). It basically felt like every man, woman and child for him/herself. This is a bit hard to adapt to when you’re used to some general level of respectfulness.
Second, there are absolutely no McDonalds in Kazakhstan – at least that’s what I was told and I definitely didn’t see any. Someone said it had to do with a meat quality issue, which I don’t buy at all given that the steaks that I had at the hotel were phenomenal. In my opinion, if the “no McDonalds” claim is true, then Kazakhstan is much better off as a result.
Third, my flight leaves at 3:30am. There is nothing fun about arriving at the airport at 2am for a 3:30am flight…
1 comment:
As for the third observation, it makes sense because you can't really evaluate America by looking at just NYC and LA for example. Glad you put the comments on!
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